Country Squire Farm was at 1225 Meadow Lane, Dunwoody

If you look up 1225 Meadow Lane Road in Dunwoody on Google maps, you end up in the middle of the road between Walton Ashford Apartments Homes and Target near Perimeter Mall. This is where Country Squire Farm was located, the home of Arthur King Adams and Marie Butler Adams.

Arthur Adams was born in 1888 in Massachusetts. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On Christmas Eve 1915, he married Marie Butler. (The North Adams Transcript, Dec. 27, 1915)

When the U. S. entered World War I, Adams completed his draft card on June 5, 1917. The card shows that he lived in Atlanta and worked as a civil engineer for Arthur Tufts. Adams’ list of career credits is from his time working for Arthur Tufts and L. W. Robert Jr. of Robert and Company.

Adams was general contractor for Coca-Cola plants, cotton mills, some of the early buildings at Emory, a library at Agnes Scott College, some University of Georgia buildings, and Camp Gordon, a World War I army training camp in Chamblee. (“The Story of Dunwoody,” Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill)

Arthur Tufts, a graduate of Georgia Tech, was the supervising contractor of Camp Gordon. When Asa Candler purchased seventy-five acres to develop the new campus of Emory University in Atlanta, he hired Arthur Tufts as the contractor. (emoryhistorian.org/2017/08/07/the-man-who-built-emory-in-druid-hills)

Adams July 27, 1970, obituary describes him as a contractor on these same buildings as well as Georgia Tech’s Grant Field, Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, 15 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plants, and the Bell Bomber Plant in Marietta. Some of these jobs were completed during his time with Robert and Company.

Arthur and Marie Adams built their Country Squire Farm home in 1940 on 200 acres along what was then Spruill Road, now Meadow Lane Road. They purchased the land from the Spruill and Williams families.

After Arthur Adams died in 1960, Marie Adams managed the farm until she sold part of it to developers. She still had Black Angus cattle at that point and sent them to a farm she owned in Floyd County.

Arthur Adams was one of the first presidents of the Dunwoody Community Club, served as president of the Dunwoody Lions Club, and often played Santa Claus at Christmas programs at the Dunwoody Elementary School. During WWII, Marie Adams invited the Red Cross and other organizations working for the war effort to meet at their home. This work often included sewing, knitting, and folding bandages.

The wedding reception of the couple’s daughter Patricia was held at Country Squire Farm. She worked as a civilian at Naval Air Station Atlanta during WWII and their son Kerwin served during the war and later worked at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta. (Atlanta Constitution, July 10, 1949, “Miss Patricia Adams weds Mr. Spencer at St. Luke’s)

Early Georgia teacher schools

I was sorting through some old family documents this week and came across a few diplomas of the women in my family including one for the Georgia Normal School in Milledgeville, Georgia. Which brings up the question-why did they call them “normal”? Normal Schools were established in Georgia towards the end of the 19th century to prepare teachers to teach elementary aged students.  It was usually a two-year program and the term normal referred to establishing clear standards or “norms” for public schools.

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Wilma Paris recalls Dunwoody's Chesnut Elementary 1969-1989

In 2011, I had the pleasure of speaking with Wilma Paris about her career as a Chesnut Elementary teacher. I had recently written about the school and stated the age as fifty years. Wilma Paris called the Dunwoody Crier newspaper to let them know that was incorrect. She was there for the first day of classes at Chesnut was December 10, 1969, as a first grade teacher and remembered the day well. At that point, the school was 42 years old and 2019 marked the 50th anniversary.

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Early Days of Dunwoody School

The first Dunwoody School sat along Chamblee Dunwoody Road where the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts are located today. The land for the first school in Dunwoody was donated by Zachariah Eidson. The earliest school dates to the 1890s and was a plain wood building. The next school, built in the 1920s was a painted white building with a front porch and a small bell tower. Then, in the 1930s a brick building was constructed.

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Tilly School

The Tilly School once sat about where the Crossroads Church of Dunwoody is located, at the intersection of Peeler Road and Tilly Mill Road. Prior to Crossroads, this was the location of North Peachtree Baptist Church.

The Tilly School, Tilly Mill, and Tilly Mill Road were named for the pioneer Tilly family that owned the land and had a home, farm and mill in the stretch between Peeler Road and North Peachtree Road. The family operated a cotton gin, sawmill and gristmill on their Dunwoody land.

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A 2008 reunion of Dunwoody School students

On May 31, 2008, I was honored to be invited to a reunion of people who attended Dunwoody School between 1928 and 1955. Carlton Renfroe, Jeff Porter, and Margaret Henderson Jenkins planned the reunion. Looking back on this opportunity, I wish I had an audio or video recording of the event. However, I was new to the group and wanted to get to know them first, so I listened and took note

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